SMSC & Values

How SMSC is taught and experienced at Coppice Valley

SMSC education is as much an approach as it is discrete experiences. SMSC is a golden thread that weaves through all we do – how we work in teams, discuss and debate, encourage reflection, consider ethical impact, explore the wonders of the world and give our pupils a voice.

Our curriculum is an important part of our SMSC (including values and character work) education as we have designed it with SMSC in mind. Our Coppice 50 are essential experiences that develop our pupils SMSC over their seven years with us. They are specific to the needs of our curriculum and context.

Character

Our character-building work is based around promoting and teaching our school values - Brave, Kind and Curious. Our approach to learning, our curriculum and our Coppice 50 helps our pupils build resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge (Brave), to show compassion (Kind) and to keep learning and growing as a person (Curious). Our curriculum stretches and challenges our pupils, encouraging them to think deeply, and developing their self-esteem and their confidence.

Our curriculum includes the 5 Foundations for Building Character

1. Sport – which includes competitive sport and activities such as running, martial arts, swimming and purposeful recreational activities, such as rock climbing, hiking, orienteering, gym programmes, yoga or learning to ride a bike.
2. Creativity – this involves all creative activities from coding, arts and crafts, writing, graphic design, film making and music composition.
3. Performing – activities including dance, theatre and drama, musical performance, choir, and public speaking.
4. Volunteering & Membership – for example, litter-picking, fundraising and working with local, national and global charities and groups to help others.
5. World of work –we encourage entrepreneurship with our Young Enterprise Group. We provide opportunities to meet role models from different jobs through our membership in Primary Futures, a national group who bring people into school from a range of careers.

Universal Values

We understand we have a duty to provide for the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education of pupils whilst promoting the values of Democracy, the Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Respect and Tolerance. These have been called British values but are now more commonly called Universal values as they underpin the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our work to promote pupils’ (SMSC) development -  including work on citizenship and community cohesion, anti-bullying learning, equalities and diversity work -  ensures we meet the government’s requirements to teach fundamental British values.

Values education does not only act as a preventative measure against radicalisation and extremism, but is also a vital part of preparing children to get on in life, creating critical thinkers and active citizens who respect others and challenge prejudice and discrimination.

Cultural Capital

The Cultural Learning Alliance  states that cultural capital "is characterised by the experience and skill to be able to deploy the appropriate knowledge in any given situation: a job interview, a conversation with a neighbour, building a work network and so on." It is often assumed to be about providing children with cultural experiences of 'high art' such as theatre, art and literature, but cultural capital can refer to much more including:

• technical cultural capital – e.g. IT
• emotional cultural capital - such as empathy and sympathy
• embodied cultural capital – e.g. language, expressions, mannerisms;
• national cultural capital - working on an assumption of an existence of traditions, the lack of which can act as a disadvantage

Our curriculum, including the Coppice 50, is broad and wide-reaching. It is a knowledge rich curriculum, designed to introduce pupils to the best that has been thought and said as well as the knowledge and skills they will need for life today such as emotional literacy and an appreciation for diversity and equality.